The Knabes and the McIllwains traveled together on vacations. "Cerritos plane crash 30 years ago: 'You either died or you didn't' " - Press Telegram. The hardest thing to deal with was the duality of my involvement, he said. She was sitting there in almost a catatonic way, Koepke recalled. No sleeping required. Today we remember those who lost their lives in the Aug. 31, 1986 mid-air collision -- a tragedy that forever changed the City of Cerritos and its community. Twenty-six years have passed since a . . Want to count bighorn sheep in the forest? At first, he was overly protective of family members and friends, trying to make sure that everyone was safe. We remember the things that were important., karen.robes@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1303, What: The 25th anniversary of the 1986 Cerritos Air Disaster. 82 people total lost their lives, including 64 on the DC-9, 3 on the small plane and 15 on the ground. Only one family that lost a relative remains in the neighborhood: the McIllwains, who rebuilt their home. The crash, caused when a single-engine Piper Cherokee struck the DC-9 as the jet approached Los Angeles International Airport, killed 15 people in four homes, all 64 aboard the jetliner and all three in the Piper. After 90 minutes, her aunt drove her to Cerritos. You want to enjoy every day because theres no guarantee that tomorrow will come, Neally said. Both planes crashed to the ground, killing everyone aboard. I saw smoke and I thought our new post office was on fire because that was just south of where the plane went down, he said. I grabbed a ladder and went over the fence and suddenly realized where I was.. Nothing can replace not being able to hold them every day., Theresa Estrada knows that, back in Cerritos, the talk among some neighbors is that her life is shattered and that shes having a tough time of it. In that brief flash of time, the 58 passengers of the Aeromexico jet, its six-person crew and 15 people on the ground were killed. Ray, an executive for a Santa Fe Springs-based manufacturing firm that makes parts for airplanes and the space program, heard what he thought was a sonic boom. As it was, Medina, his wife, their 3-year-old son and a niece escaped the terrible flames and explosions that consumed their house and everything they owned. National Transportation Safety Board Aircraft Accident Report: Collision of Aeronaves de Mexico, S.A McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, XA JED and Piper PA-28-181, NF891F, Cerritos, California, August 31, 1986. On a recent Tuesday evening, just back in his newly built home, Doug Fuller looked out of his living room and saw another eternal nuisance, the gawkers, the strangers who still drive up and down the block, still curious, still gesturing from their cars. We were like three lost souls, she said. The area was already barricaded, so Koepke walked down a cul-de-sac either Ashworth Place or East Reva Circle to a home of a member of his congregation. The coroners office says everyone on the Aeromexico jet did die on impact, but Guzman cant help wondering whether they had to experience the fire, too. On March 21, 2022, the Boeing 737-800 B-1791 of China Eastern Airlines Yunnan Co., Ltd. was carrying out the MU5735 Kunming-Guangzhou flight. She had seen the little plane coming down, and she thought it was going to hit her when she was standing in the backyard. We forget it. 82 people total lost their lives, including 64. Theresa Estrada has already tried to come back to Cerritos. A nearby phone rang and Dennis McIllwain lunged to grab it, his face radiant with hope. Two planes a jetliner and small single-engine aircraft collided over Cerritos. Dont let it bother you. Using a table, they climbed over their backyard brick wall, hopscotching flames, joining other neighbors in a frantic escape. About 20 houses were either completely or partially destroyed. You couldnt go to chapter 6 of page 248 to find out what happens during a major disaster like that. If it was a car crash, or cancer, youd know how they died, said Guzman, a 33-year-old beauty salon owner who puts much of her spare time into phoning relatives of air crash victims throughout the country and who recently leased a building to establish a counseling center for relatives and friends of people who die in airplane accidents. Ive come to the conclusion there was a God up there, but he wasnt picking or choosing, she said, sounding at peace with her answer. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), A Cerritos Air Disaster survivors terrifying memories, Biden expected to tighten rules on US investment in China, More Iranian schoolgirls sickened in suspected poisoning wave. Location 1985-86 1986-87 Los Angeles 8 9 Santa Monica 7 5 Palmdale 5 3 Burbank 4 8 Long Beach 3 10 Van Nuys 3 9 Seal Beach 1 4, Reporting Plane/Other 85-6 86-7 Airliner/Private Plane 17 23 Private Plane/Private 15 12 Private Plane/Military 4 0 Airliner/Airliner 4 0 Private Plane/Airliner 2 0 Air Taxi/Private Plane 0 5. You dont want to see those anymore. Dennis McIllwain could not believe his wife was dead. Unlike war veterans, the people of Cerritos were not expecting to be attacked. We had a debriefing, one of the best things our department has ever done, he said. This month, workmen finished the first two complete rebuilding jobs: On Holmes Avenue, close to where the jets 50-ton fuselage fell, a new family moved into a rented home on the spot where five people died. Little stuffed dolls. He is the author of four books, most recently a memoir/collection I'm Dyin' Here. Their small plane fluttering down into the field at Cerritos Elementary school. For years after the crash, Cerritos was known almost exclusively for the disaster. That, too, gives him a pang. There was no book on it. Mary Guzman holds photos of her son, Robert Guzman and her husband Joe Guzman, right, both died at 11:52 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1986, when two planes collided in the skies over Cerritos and plunged to the ground, at the 25 year memorial Wednesday, at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden in Cerritos. He cries more. Just in case it happens again. On August 31, 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9 was clipped by a small plane over Cerritos. And a reader from Lakewood who really, really, really likes to smoke weed and who was proud way beyond reason to have attended Lakewood High School, responded to a column we wrote about high school in the olden days, which to him were in 1972, when you could buy an ounce of Mexican marijuana for $10, and a little better grade of Mexican for $15, or, you could get the best, Acapulco Gold and Panama Red for $30 an ounce., Mr. Lakewood goes on to say that the 1972 good stuff was WAY better than anything grown today.. Alex Guzman, left, of Santa Fe Springs, holds photos of his father, Joe Guzman, left, and brother, Robert Guzman, right, both who died on flight 498, at the 25 year memorial Wednesday, at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden in Cerritos. But the potential for that accident to happen exists every day, and you dont want to think about it., Nonetheless, Grundmann said, when hes working on a Sunday, and he happens to look out over the traffic control sector in which Aeromexico was flying that day, I still think about it.. He is the author of four books, most recently a memoir/collection I'm Dyin' Here. Want to count bighorn sheep in the forest? A black path runs through the Cerritos, Calif., neighborhood in this August 31, 1986 file photo, after a midair collision between an AeroMexico DC-9 and a small twin-engine plane. At 11:52 a.m. on Aug. 31, 1986, while McIllwain was still at Sunday school, an Aeromexico DC-9 on approach to Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico collided with a small plane and slammed into the boys neighborhood in Cerritos. We tried to make the place, although there were no homes left in certain places, at least get the I dont know how else to say it but get the smell of death and the thought of death off the ground and move forward, Knabe said. How do you not feel that day in, day out?. Aug. 31, 1986: A deputy stands amid debris on Holmes Avenue after the jetliner crash in Cerritos. All she knows is that she has to relive the moment when she and her husband were sitting down to lunch and a high-pitched whistle turned into a deafening roar and Robbie ran up the driveway and yelled that a plane was falling. The airplanes wing sliced off the top of his two-story house, the fuselage smacked into the yard, and the house burst into flames. They could never again find peace in Cerritos. The wall to Carmenita was still too high. Karl Grundmann, an air traffic controller who was on duty at the Terminal Radar Control Center at Los Angeles International Airport on the Sunday when the collision occurred, said controllers shy away from too much remembering. I used to be a stronger person, said Ivan Medina, who plans to rebuild on Holmes but has yet to get started. Never had so many been killed on the ground as the result of an airline crash in the United States. His mother, Linda, 14 others in their houses, and 67 people aboard the two planes were killed that sunny Sunday. Then-Planning Commissioner George Ray, who today is the mayor of Cerritos, was doing some work at home on his dining room table. I saw this huge plume of smoke, and I thought, this is not just a house on fire, he said. Neally led them out. We didnt need those reminders.. Ambulances were there but they were not needed, because it was a coroners situation.. Airline pilots are used to having accidents occur. I have to pinch myself to get out of it. Three people were reported to have been on board the smaller airplane, which crashed in an empty school yard about two blocks from the wreckage of the airliner.. Her parents couldnt figure out why. Its natural. Dr. Patrick OConnor, head of the countys Rio Hondo Mental Health Center in Cerritos, and the man who led an effort to offer counseling to all of the citys residents immediately after the crash, said such reactions are part of the post-traumatic stress syndrome that affects many combat veterans. Instead, the city in 2003 chose a more quiet reminder, commissioning a three-part memorial to remember the victims in a sculpture garden at the Civic Center. He lights a cigarette--a habit hes fallen back into after 17 years of abstaining--and compulsively checks the house for escape routes. News footage from August 31, 1986 about the Aeromexico DC-9 airplane that crashed in Cerritos, California. One woman who lives near the crash site told of telephoning a government agency to make an appointment and having the clerk, upon hearing her address, ask if thats where the plane went down. What now? Denise Guzman got a phone call about it at her home in Whittier, where her family was having a barbecue, the same kind of barbecue that had been planned--and then abruptly canceled--the day Aeromexico Flight 498 went down, with Guzmans father-in-law and four other in-laws on board, returning from a Mexican fishing trip. Eighty-two people died 67 aboard the two aircraft and 15 on the ground. You go, Oh well, its been a year later and everythings back to normal. Well, its not. Neally ran inside, screaming for his family, not realizing that they were in the backyard. Heres an excerpt from his article, which appeared in the Sept. 1, 1986, Times: The crash occurred at 11:55 a.m., and authorities identified the downed airliner as Aeromexico Flight 498, which was about to land at Los Angeles International Airport after a flight from Mexico City with stops in Guadalajara, Loreto and Tijuana. The remembrance will include a brief formal ceremony with the Cerritos City Council; a reading of the victims' names; a prayer for the victims and their loved ones; and a moment of silence. Scattered in between the work are four vacant lots. Alejandra Molina writes about immigration, race, and religion for the Southern California News Group. Yellow police tape, miles of it, cordoned off all such areas.. Her 8-year-old son, Robbie, who had watched the Aeromexico plane spiral down as he stood in his front yard, overheard her.
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